Ghana to increase power supply to Burkina Faso – Minister
Ghana will increase its power supply to Burkina Faso by 100 megawatts (MW) by the end of the year to help boost the energy needs of her neighbour.
The work on the Bolgatanga-Ouagadougou transmission line is expected to be completed by December 31, with the testing phase expected to commence early next year.
50MW of the 100MW is expected to be transmitted from Aboadze through Kumasi and Bolgatanga to Burkina Faso.
Mr Boakye Agyarko, the Minister of Energy, made the disclosure when the Minister of Energy, Mines and Quarries of Burkina Faso, Professor Alfa Oumar Dissa, paid a courtesy call on him in Accra.
The visit, among other things, afforded the two ministers the opportunity to discuss the status of the 225 kilovolt (kV) Bolgatanga–Ouagadougou Project.
It enabled Prof. Dissa to pay a day’s working visit to the 225 kV Bolgatanga– Ouagadougou Project site in Bolgatanga.
Mr Agyarko said: “We have been supplying power to Burkina Faso in a smaller quantity of 0.5 MW since 2003, but it moved to 9.2 MW in 2013. It has now got to the point that Burkina Faso has embarked on a development agenda and need more power, and Ghana has agreed to supply power to a tune of 100 MW.”
He said that power was an indicator of progress and that it was also one of the few commodities that citizens could mostly hold politicians accountable for.
He said reliable and adequate power supply would lead to the socioeconomic transformation of the two countries.
Mr Agyarko said Ghana had enough power-generating capacity to supply power to Burkina Faso adding that at the moment some power generating plants in the country were sitting idle.
He said by supplying power to Burkina Faso, Ghana would be generating more income and be utilising the generating capacities of plants that were sitting idle and yet government was paying for their overhead cost.
Mr Agyarko announced that the two countries would soon begin the construction of a petroleum pipeline from Buipe in the Northern Region through Bolgatanga to Bingo in Burkina Faso.
He said the pipeline, when completed, would carry finished petroleum products from Ghana to Burkina Faso as part of efforts to eradicate unscrupulous petroleum transporters.
With regards to the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso, whose annual excess water spillage often caused flooding in some communities in northern Ghana, Mr Agyarko said Burkina Faso was taking steps to construct another dam downstream to contain any excess water from the spillage.
He explained that the dam to be constructed could possibly be used by Burkina Faso for power generation, irrigation, and the water slowly released into Ghana.
Prof. Dissa expressed satisfaction over the level of progress on the 225 kV Bolgatanga- Ouagadougou Project and the transmission line.
“The reason why we are here today is to reinforce both countries’ commitment for the implementation of this project. Furthermore, Burkina Faso is in need, because their power demand is much. The country needs to be stabilised in terms of electricity supply before next year,” he said.
Prof. Dissa said upon the completion of their yet to be constructed dam, the annual flooding of communities in northern Ghana, due to the Bagre Dam spillage, would be a thing of the past.
Also at the meeting was Mr William Owuraku-Aidoo, the Deputy Minister of Energy, in-charge of Power.
Source: GNA